The 301st Radio Broadcasting
and Leaflet Group

Staff Sergeant Bob Rudick stands by the sign of the
301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group at Fort Riley, Kansas, in the summer of 1951.

Most of the stories that we write are about PSYOP units in the heat of battle.
We illustrate the leaflets and posters they printed, translate their loudspeaker messages,
and discuss the general philosophy of their war. This story is a bit different. We used to
say, Many are called but few are chosen. The same is true in the military.
Many units are put together in a great rush, hurriedly trained and deployed overseas.
However, they are not always sent into battle. Often, they are deployed to replace another
unit that has gone to the front. That was true to a great extent recently in Operation
Desert Storm where most Reserve medical units replaced hospitals overseas so that active
duty troops could deploy to the war zone. In the case of the 301st RB&L Group they
were the first to bring a PSYOP unit to Germany during the Korean War. With the North
Koreans on the attack, troops were training frantically at Ft.Riley. About half of the
new Psywarriors in training were sent to Korea or Japan, the rest to Germany.

It 1950, the United States Army had little interest in psychological operations.
Their field manual sums it up thusly:

The outbreak of the Korean conflict, in June 1950, was to be the first major
postwar test of countering the emerging threat of communism. In 1950, there was only one
psychological warfare unit; the Army had no PSYOP plans, no PSYOP doctrine, and virtually
no trained PSYOP personnel despite the success during WWII.

When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, the Tactical Information Detachment
at Fort Riley, Kansas, was the only operational psychological warfare troop unit in the
Army. After its deployment to Korea, the detachment became the 1st Loudspeaker and Leaflet
Company and it served as the 8th Armys tactical propaganda unit throughout the
conflict. By April 1951, Major General Robert McClure requested the activation of the 1st
Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group to assist the Far East Command (FECOM), in conducting
strategic propaganda; the 2nd Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company at Fort Riley, Kansas, a
prototype unit; the 5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company at Fort Riley, scheduled to be
sent to FECOM but actually deployed to Boeblingen Military Sub-Post, Germany; and the
301st (Reserve) Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group, to be trained at Fort Riley, and
then shipped to Europe. No sooner had the two groups been deployed than a third, the 6th
Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group was formed at Ft. Riley. They were not deployed and
eventually ended up at Ft. Bragg, N.C. General McClure moved quickly to assist FECOM in
its organization and conduct of both psychological warfare and unconventional warfare,
while he concurrently helped the European Command prepare for the employment of both
capabilities in the event of war with the Soviet Union.

Some of this story is told by retired Colonel Alfred H. Paddock in U.S. Army
Special Warfare, University Press of Kansas, 2002:

Spurred by the war in Korea and persistent pressure of Secretary of the Army
Frank Pace, the Army created the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare (OCPW) in
early 1951 under the leadership of Brigadier General Robert. A. McClure

McClure was embarrassed at the lack of trained officers ready for psychological
operations positions. He had warned after WWII the United States needed to keep a cadre of
trained PSYOP officers. He had the 301st RB&L Group called up and shipped to Germany.
However, as some members later learned to their dismay, they came very close to being
deployed to Korea. Paddock adds:

The decision to ship the 301st RB&L Group to Europe was itself fraught with
controversy General Willoughby, G-2 (Intelligence) Far East Command, felt that the
assignment of the 301st to his command would be the most practical solution to its urgent
needs, and McClure initially agreed. A decision, however, by the Army Staff G-3
(Operations) to honor the corresponding and prior need expressed by the European theater
forced McClure to backtrack. Instead, he shipped to the Far East Command the 1st RB&L
Group, a prototype unit stationed at Ft.Riley.

The NationalBroadcastingCorporation Building

In the late 1940s, the 301st (Reserve) Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group met
one weekend a month in the studios on the National Broadcasting Corporation in New York
City. The unit was made up of about 35 reservists. Bob Rudick worked for NBC as a studio
engineer and had been invited to join the unit on numerous occasions. He had previously
served as a corporal in the 258th Field Artillery Battalion of the New YorkState National
Guard on 155 mm howitzers. The Reserve unit wanted him because of his radio experience and
contacted the Adjutant General the State National Guard to arrange for the transfer.

With the onset of the Korean War, Bob decided it was time to look again at the
Reserve unit. They offered him a staff sergeant position and he accepted. In a very short
time he was surprised to receive orders stating that the entire unit was being called up
and sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas for training. In those days, all of the PSYOP units were
trained at Ft. Riley. On 1 May 1951, SSG Rudick found himself in Kansas as a member of
the 301st RB&L Group. He was probably spared going to Korea with the 1st Group because
he spoke German. At this time it was certainly just the luck of the draw where you were
assigned.

301st Commander Colonel Elsworth Gruber (sixth from left)

Mike Paschkes story is similar with just a few minor differences. He joined
the 301st in the fall of 1950. He says that the reservists were primarily advertising
people, and he was brought in by a co-worker at an advertising agency. He then brought in
some high school and college friends. The commanding officer was Colonel Gruber, a
linotype setter by day for the NY Daily News.

Mike had already taken his draft physical, so the Army drafted him right out of the 301st
and sent him to the 540th Field Artillery Battalion at Ft.Bragg. He says:

I kept in touch with Colonel Gruber, and after a few weeks was transferred to Ft.
Riley into the 5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company. One day, the Company Commander called
me in and told me the 301st was being activated and was coming to Ft.Riley. He offered to
let me re-join them. When I asked what they would be doing, I was told 16 weeks of
infantry basic. I said thanks but no thanks.

In August 1951 the 5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company was shipped to a beautiful
panzerkaserne in Boeblingen, Germany. I stayed with them for about six months as a writer
and was then transferred to 7th Army Headquarters as an editor of the 7th Army Sentinel. I
was sent to Non-Commissioned Officers school in Munich and was the honor graduate, but
promotions were frozen so I came home in January 1953 still a Private First Class.

About a dozen years after I first wrote this story, Dr. Jared R. Tracy of the U.S.
Army Special Operations Magazine Veritas wrote about the 301st in an article
entitled Psyche - the 301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group, in volume
10, issue 1 of 2014. Let me quote a short passage from that article quoting the unit
history:

the 301st travelled by train to Sullivan Barracks, a former Nazi Wehrmacht
compound The first sight of Sullivan Kaserne with its solidly constructed buildings,
modern plumbing, and semi-private room design, did much to raise troop morale

Veritas mentions several PSYOP projects started in August 1951:

The 301st produced original Psywar materials for training purposes. These
included a leaflet to incite work sabotage among Communist-held prisoners of
war, and to encourage their hopes for eventual liberation and freedom.

A half hour documentary dealing with the Communist Youth Rally in East
Berlin printed leaflets and safe conduct passes; and posters on subject ranging from
demands for the release of William Otis (An American publicist held by the Czech
government) to a series designed to sell America to Yugoslavia.

The 301st Mobile Radio Company

The best part was that most of the people were NBC employees and as a result
already knew their business. Often new units are put together with people of various
backgrounds and it takes a long time for them to bond and be trained to an acceptable
level. In this case, the majority of members were radio people already so they were able
to hit the ground running. The unit soon started to receive draftees, but most were either
college graduates, instructors, professionals or writers. Since it was the height of the
Cold War, all the unit members were required to get a clearance. Allegedly, some of the New
York City members had their entire apartment building interrogated, in one case 65
families.

SSG Bob Rudick plays tanker as his riggers lift the antenna.
PFC Art Martin believes he is the soldier on the antenna in the background

The unit was made up of three companies; Headquarters, Mobile Radio Company,
and the Leaflet Company. Some of the staff were sent on temporary duty assignment to Quincy,
Illinois to be trained by the Gates Radio Company. They were assigned professional riggers
and taught how to install a 180-foot radio tower in a chicken farm outside of town.

Speaking of the tower, Art Martin was also a member of the 301st Mobile Radio
Broadcasting Company. He worked on erecting the 180-Foot tower and its maintenance, as
well as the PE-95 generators, the emergency Hydrogen barrage balloon and a long-wire
antenna. The model PE-95 generator was made by D.W. Onan & Sons for the US Army Signal
Corps starting in 1944. The unit weighs approximately 1550 pounds and is powered by a
4-cylinder Willys Jeep engine.

He remembers driving the two and one-half ton truck full of hydrogen cylinders used
to fill the barrage balloon from Sullivan Barracks cross country to maneuvers in a forest.

He spent much of his workday in a portable equipment shelter in the bed of another REO
2-1/2 ton truck. The M35 truck is in the 2 1/2 ton weight class and was one of many
vehicles in US military service to have been referred to as the deuce and a
half. The basic M35 cargo truck carried 5000 pounds across country or 10,000 pounds
over roads. The M35 series formed the basis for a wide range of specialized vehicles. The
M35 started out in 1949 as a design by the REO Motor Car Company.

His task was radio intercept: voice-to-tape and teletype hard copy. He had a BC-610
multi-band short-wave transmitter inside the shelter. The BC-610 radio transmitter is a
medium power r-f transmitter which will transmit AM or CW signals over a range of more
than 100 miles. The BC-610 radio transmitter assembly is made up of three chassis.
The top chassis includes all of the r-f components. The center section contains most
of the audio and modulator equipment. The bottom chassis includes the h-v power
supply and overload relay. The three chassis are assembled in a sheet steel cabinet
with a front panel upon which the external controls and metering instruments are mounted.
The cabinet is bolted to a shock-mounted base. The weight is approximately 400
pounds.

The Troop Ship S.S. American Scout

Private First Class Martin told me about his trip to Germany and his duties there in
more detail in November, 2010:

I didn't sail with the main units of the 301st nor did Edward Mangold or 1st Lt.
Mosher. From Fort Riley we were off to the Brooklyn Army Base to await arrival and loading
of the electronic equipment from Gates Radio Corporation onto the S.S. American Scout. She
left Brooklyn between February and April, 1952. I don't have any paperwork to verify the
dates. We were housed at the Brooklyn Army Base while there.

We were the only three unit members aboard the American Scout. Ed and I had the
daily tasks of inspecting the hold-downs on the two trailers and mobile shelters on deck
during the gray, rainy days and rolling seas that followed. Much of the equipment was
still in their original shipping containers. After a couple of days, Ed and I were able to
visit the bridge at night when things were less busy for the crew. Going up the English
Channel one night we were able to take some readings using the radio direction finding
equipment on the bridge. We actually spotted some minor errors in the ships
navigation.

We arrived in Bremerhaven and were soon on a passenger train to Mannheim. Once
there, a jeep driver drove Ed and me up to Sullivan Barracks. Soon afterwards our
equipment arrived. The boxes of antenna parts were up in the second floor of one of the
motor pool garages. There they sat until the decision was made to put it together and
erect it out in the field where the transmitter trailer was located.

We painted every other mast section with red lead paint to provide enhanced
visibility when it was erected. I don't know if the concrete base was pre-cast or poured
by the engineers. The bottom insulator was bolted to the concrete base. The three ground
anchors were positioned and screwed into the semi-sandy soil to use as temporary anchor
points to assist in the assembly using the heavy duty insulator to support the first (and
later all the antenna sections) until about 1/3 of the sections were in place. The first
section was balanced on the insulator and temporarily guyed. Then the remaining
pre-assembled sections, alternating silver (galvanized) and red, were bolted together,
using temporary guy wires to keep all the sections as near vertical as possible.

Once the lower third was in place, more sections were assembled until the next
guy wire location was reached. The guys were attached and adjusted to maintain the
section's vertically alignment. This process was repeated up to the next guy attachment
point and then repeated until the top section was bolted on. The aircraft warning lamps
were attached and wired. Final adjustments to guy wire tensions and final adjustment to
assure a vertical alignment just about finished the erection.

Colonel Gruber could be justifiably proud. No one got injured on the job.
Finally, the aircraft warning lights wiring to the tower was connected to an electrical
supply and the transmitter trailer was tied in to the lowest antenna section. That was the
hard job. The tower erection took about a week after the concrete base was in place, since
the sections were pre-assembled and painted while still at the motor pool. The top-most
aircraft warning lamps were wired-up one late afternoon just as a good-sized thunderstorm
was advancing from the direction of Mannheim. I finished that job as quickly as possible
before the storm reached us.

After the tower was complete, I spent most of my duty hours monitoring various
radio frequencies to be tape recorded and teletype print outs for interpretation by the
intelligence section utilizing the equipment in the radio intercept shelter: a BC-610
multi-band tube-type transmitter, an antenna multiplexer (used to minimize signal fade
were tuned to the same frequency using two widely-separated antennas) which was connected
to a multi-band shortwave receiver. We could also record voice broadcasts on magnetic tape
as well as teletype messages printed directly by the teletype printer. It was a very
versatile setup for its time. I miss that equipment and would have had great fun with it
after I received my amateur radio license! It was a great time and I don't regret one
second of it.

Corporal Herb Herman was a member of the Headquarters Company of the 301st from 1951
to 1953. He talked about the many members of the unit that were college students,
especially those like himself from New YorkUniversity and 1st Lieutenant (professor)
Albert Somit. He recalls that the unit met in the NBC studios next to the Tonight Show that
starred Jerry Lester, Morey Amsterdam and the voluptuous Dagmar. I may be showing my age
now, but I remember all of them.

He recalls that after 90 days in Germany every member of the unit was awarded the
Army of Occupation medal. He adds that a good number of the unit personnel had
language skills and were used to translate radio transmission and printed material. The
analysts within the unit compiled and catalogued intelligence.

Several of the men were then put through an infiltration course three times
because they were expected to be sent into Germany on a secret training
mission to set up a radio. After each round of training the mission was cancelled.

Not all of the men in the 301st RB&L Group deployed to Germany. Former Sergeant
Adrian Ettlinger told me that he was drafted into the U.S. Army in January, 1949. His term
of enlistment was initially 21 months, but late that year, army policy changed and
draftees were released to the reserve after 12 months of service, so he was discharged in
January, 1950. He could choose between five years in the inactive reserve or three years
in an active reserve unit. He said:

In civilian life I had been a facilities design engineer at the Columbia
Broadcasting System, with an electrical engineering degree specializing in electronics. I
was first assigned to the 317th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion, an active unit
sponsored by New York Telephone Company, which met in a building in lower Manhattan on the
waterfront which was a major Telephone Company base. When I reported to my first meeting,
I found various troops in a large hall practicing climbing telephone poles and training in
pole line construction.

I told the First Sergeant that my I knew nothing of pole climbing. He sent me to
a Master Sergeant in charge of reserve assignments for the New York City area who told me
that he had received a letter from a Captain who commanded the Mobile Radio Broadcasting
Company of the 301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group sponsored by the National
Broadcasting Company. I met the captain, Bob Barnaby, an NBC engineer, in the RCA
building, close to where I worked at CBS. He encouraged me to join the unit. They met once
a month in an NBC studio, which very convenient for me, and I decided that a quick three
years in an active unit would be preferable to a long five years in an inactive unit, so I
joined.

<>I found the monthly meetings quite interesting. We had a Major who had been active
in the French Underground and really understood Psychological Warfare. Then, we got the
bombshell news that the unit had been activated. I was a Private First Class
at the time, but, I was immediately promoted to Corporal, and after spending two weeks in
that rank, became a Sergeant immediately after going on active duty. I believe just about
every enlisted man in the unit went up two grades in the process of going to active duty.

At Ft. Riley, I found a friend in the Groups Sergeant Major, Roland Rose. I
spent much of my time working for him. The unit, which was, in size, really the equivalent
of only a company, was classified as a Group and commanded by a full Colonel who I believe
was a Press Foreman at the N.Y. Daily News. It was required to maintain files of Army
Regulations down to the level which was required of a Regiment. To compile such a set of
regulations was a substantial clerical task, a responsibility that I took on. This
involved much paper work, preparing many pages of requisitions listing just about every
regulation in existence. The office which distributed the regulations was unable to send
all the required documents, and they came in by dribs and drabs for months afterwards.

I believe I was the only enlisted man in the unit with an engineering degree. In
fact, the only officer I knew who had a degree was Lieutenant Bob Barnaby who was promoted
to Caption on active duty. Consequently, I was the most qualified electronic
expert in the unit.

During our Ft. Riley training, a small group of us were sent to the Gates factory
at Quincy, IL, for orientation on the radio transmitting equipment with which we were
going to be supplied. I believe it was a 5KW AM transmitter. I think we spent about the
week there.

The original 301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group consisted of a collection
of personalities thrown together in such a way that rank and position in civilian life had
no particular correlation. For instance, in theory there could be officers who had been
pageboys at NBC and enlisted men who had been executives. One standing gag was that the
official name of the Leaflet Company was the Reproduction Company. That was
always good for a laugh. [Authors note: In this article I have used the terms
interchangeably].

Spread through the ranks at all levels was a substantial mixture of people with
show business experience or aspirations. Hence there was a fair amount of performing, or
entertainment production skills. Consequently, a major side activity was the putting on of
shows. We put on one show at Ft. Riley where I assisted with the lighting. I talked to
some unit members after they returned from Germany. They told me that they had put on a
number of entertainment shows for the troops stationed over there. They implied that this
was a major activity and sometimes it felt like they were a traveling USO company.

So, why did Adrian not deploy to Germany with his unit? He explains:

One day, a new regulation appeared which established a series of new
MOSs (Military Occupational Specialties). These MOSs were specifically
for the purpose of classifying graduate engineers, and of course there was one for
electrical engineers. I asked that my MOS be changed. My MOS at the time was Radio
Repairman. Soon afterwards we received a telegram from the Secretary of the Army,
that said, Transfer Sergeant Adrian B. Ettlinger, to the Development Detachment, Ft.
Monmouth. N.J. The Development Detachment was a small laboratory charged with
developing military uses of television. I had been told earlier that it was virtually
impossible to get transferred out of any outfit that was on alert for shipment overseas,
but my electrical engineering degree apparently worked magic at the Pentagon.

Meanwhile the unit continued to train. In July 1951 the MRB detachment operated a
radio station at FortRiley and published a daily bulletin. By 14 August they were
producing propaganda as part of their advanced training.

The USS General Maurice Rose

The unit eventually ended up on the USS General Maurice Rose. They departed in
November of 1951 and immediately ran into a storm. For 3 days and nights everyone was
confined to below decks as the ship rocked and the screws lifted up out of the stormy
waters. The entire unit could be found circling barrels placed in the open areas for
vomiting. The trip took nine long miserable days.

Staff Sergeant Lawrence Berman of the Reproduction Company recalls the trip to Germany.
He said:

We went over on the General Maurice Rose and I vomited for 8 days.

I like comments like this because they tell a truth about the military that
civilians seldom hear. The Military will put thousands of landlubbers on a ship and send
them off to the other side of the world without regard to what toll the sea will take of
them. I once spent 21 days on a ship going to Taiwan and then on to Okinawa. There were
4,000 men on that ship from the Midwest that had never seen the ocean. They started
vomiting on day one and did so until day 21. The decks were awash with vomit for 21 days.
As the ship rocked, there would be waves of it up to your ankles. I am happy to say that
because I had been deep-sea fishing in my youth I knew about sea-sickness, and never threw
up. But, I was swallowing hard to keep it down the entire three weeks.

The Groups Men Train on the Radio Equipment

The broadcast crew train on the radio equipment. This mock program was programmed at
an Army base in Germany to demonstrate what a propaganda broadcast would sound like.
Standing at the left is Corporal John O'Keefe.

Corporal Len Geriputto and Private First
Class Michael Stoppleman sit at their microphones and Staff Sergeant Bob Rudick at the
control panel.

The Group's Barracks in Germany

Staff Sergeant Bob Rudickstands
by the sign of the
301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group near Mannheim

By Thanksgiving Day, 1951, the unit was deployed to Germany, stationed in
Sullivan Barracks, Mannheim. SSG Rudick was the chief rigger and he finally got permission
to put up his 180-foot radio antenna. But, WashingtonDC decided that any broadcasting
from the new radio might be seen as an overt act of aggression by the Russians so the
unit, although ready to broadcast was kept silent. They broadcast some very low power
music and news to their own people, but otherwise it was a case of train and wait for the
call.

At the end of November 1951, the unit exhibited PSYWAR products in Frankfurt. By
January the reproduction personnel were training in the Seventh Army Printing Plant in
Leiman.

European Command Patch

Nobody knew quite what to do with them in Germany. They were issued the European
Command patch to wear on their left sleeve (General Eisenhowers old SHAEF insignia)
and their collar brass was first Signal Corps, then Military Intelligence, and finally a
plain American Eagle since they were unassigned to any major military organization.

PFC Michael Stoppleman,
CPL John OKeefe, CPL Len Geriputto and
SSG Bob Rudick of the 301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group study
the Bible of PSYOP, Paul Linebargers Psychological Warfare

To keep the men busy, several were sent around Germany to visit the American
GIs and explain the value of psychological warfare and what it could do to benefit
American forces. Bob Rudick said:

We were looking for something to do and travel and lecture was the answer. We would
go from one base to another all over Germany. It was a great tour if you wanted to
sightsee, but the training kept on and on. The leaflet company got some beautiful
6-color presses and they did a great job of turning out beautiful menus for the mess hall
but they were never used to win the hearts and minds of an enemy. They constantly trained
at psychological warfare but I never a part of it. I spent my year and half training and
traveling and then it was home.

Staff Sergeant Berman of the Reproduction Company remembers being ordered to try and
keep the peacetime unit busy:

We did not print any propaganda leaflets. In fact, we did not do a whole lot of any
constructive work. What did we do? We ate well, frequented the Harmony Club,
played ball, trained constantly and polished the multi-million dollar printing equipment.
Our Company Commander Captain Peck ordered me to get the men busy on some kind of a
printing project. As a training exercise I had the men print one side of a dollar
greenback and they circulated them all over the Post Exchange as gag. Needless to
say, the Inspector General in Washington found out about it and had no sense of humor. I
was reamed by our company commander till I was raw, but he didn't take away my
stripes. Hell, he ordered the printing exercise!

The unit must have been doing some PSYOP work. In a unit publications entitled Whos
Who and where they hang their hats the Reproduction company apologizes for the delay
by saying:

The incessant cried for publication of a long-awaited unit directory made the task
of placing it at the bottom of the pile difficult; but the reproduction of PSYWAR
material, deemed more important, necessitated it.

Reproduction Company, already working two shifts and lacking sufficient personnel to
initiate a lobster shift, was floundering amid the ever-increasing material to
be printed.

For instance, on 1 May 1952, the units first anniversary on active duty, they
staged a leaflet drop in front of group headquarters. On 20 May the 7878 Augmentation
Detachment (Balloon) was attached to the 301st. On 23 May, they broadcast their first
radio program from Sullivan Barracks.

By this time the unit had grown to about 125 enlisted men and 37 officers. The
unit commander was Colonel Gruber. In his civilian life he was a printer for the New York
Daily News. The newspaper was owned by the Patterson family, and by some coincidence his
son Robert Patterson was assigned to the Headquarters Company as were Colonel
Grubers two sons.

The Announcer's Booth

The Control Room in the Studio Trailer

Just about all of the equipment in the radio station was supplied by Gates
Radio. The studio had one control room and one announcer booth. It also had Gates
turntables and tape recorders. The transmitter could push out 50,000 watts.

The Portable Mixer

A portable mixer is a panel for multiple Microphones. The photograph above depicts a
three-position mixer that can accept three microphones and balance the output of each
microphone and a master overall output control. If more than three microphones are in use
you can wire more of the mixers together.

The Groups 33-foot Studio Trailer

In addition, there were two 33-foot trailers, one for the studio and the other
for the transmitter. Both were run by diesel generators.

SSG Rudick left the 301st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group in December 1952
after serving his two-year tour of duty.

Sergeant Robert W. Beller wrote a poem about the unit. I quote a small part of it here:

Our Army has something it has not had before,Its tactics have turned pedagological;This new kind of fighting is labeled PSWAR,But its somewhat more psycho than logical.In the past our men knew the meaning of strife,Each man was well-armed and a killerBut he fought with a Mauser a Luger or knifeNot a page out of Goethe or Shiller.

Pecks Bad Boys

I have been unable to find any of the leaflets or posters created by the 301st during
their deployment to Germany. I did find a small souvenir booklet created by the unit to
commemorate their tour, and with the title honoring the Reproduction Company Commander
Captain Roy Peck.

Captain Roy Peck

The booklet says in regard to Captain Peck:

He was a newspaperman - a publisher from Riverton, Wyoming  when he was
recalled to active duty [He was in the 84th Infantry Division during WWII] and assigned to
the 301st RB&L Group at Ft. Riley Kansas. He knew the printing business first-hand
from leads and slugs to four-color pictorials He was a captain who knew his army from
buck private to combat-experienced commanding officer, decorated several times, an old
hand at leading men.

His men were a mix of specialties:

Then we started arriving  Pecks Bad Boys  some from the infantry,
some from the engineers, from ordnance, the artillery, the signal corps, quartermaster and
armor too Most of us were fresh out of basic training. We had been sent to join
Captain Peck in forming one of the first reproduction companies of its type in Army
history.

Cynical, thankless, apathetic
when we walked in  new men with a company spirit de corps and sincere gratitude when
we walked out.

This ends our brief look at one of the early PSYOP Groups that was not sent
into battle. At present we have little information on the 301st but we hope that our
readers will remedy that situation. They must have been doing something important in Germany
because the Army Field Manual on Psychological Warfare says:

Both the 1st [in Korea] and 301st [in Germany] RB&L Groups concurrently
engaged in psychological warfare and support to unconventional warfare (UW).

The author would like to hear from other members of the group and members of
other units that are seldom mentioned in psychological warfare articles. Kindly contact
the author
at sgmbert@hotmail.com.